Finding whooping cranes in Aransas

Whooping cranes feed recently in the shallow water of St. Charles Bay. This has been a difficult year for the big birds. The severe drought last summer affected their food supply.

Photo contributed by Barbara Olsen

Whooping cranes feed recently in the shallow water of St. Charles Bay. This has been a difficult year for the big birds. The severe drought last summer affected their food supply.

Photo contributed by Barbara Olsen

Whooping cranes feed recently in the shallow water of St. Charles Bay. This has been a difficult year for the big birds. The severe drought last summer affected their food supply.

Photo contributed by Barbara Olsen

Rockport’s cemetery, only a block from the waterfront, is awash in spring flowers.

Photo contributed by Barbara Olsen

CORPUS CHRISTI - Although I had attended a bit of Port Aransas’ festival in their honor in late February, I had not seen a whooping crane this year.

It is almost time for them to begin their return trip to Canada where they nest, so when Leah Pummill invited me to ride over to see a family of the tall ones, reportedly feeding on Lamar Peninsula, in the shallow water of St. Charles Bay. I accepted. They were said to be just north of Goose Island and south of the Big Tree, behind the island that is their winter home, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Fellow birders along on the trip were Kathy Griffith, and Barbara Olsen. Regardless of what we saw, it would be fun.

This has been a difficult year for the big birds. The severe drought last summer affected their food supply because the rivers which normally supply water to their habitat were subject to much heavier use.

Patty Waits Beasley regularly supplies a bulletin on the cranes to texbirds, an online bulletin board at http://listserv.nethelps.com/main/wa.exe?A0=texbirds&D=1&H=0&O=D&T=0. She quotes Tom Stehn, refuge manager, as saying, “Blue crabs are at low levels and the cranes are having to look for other sources of food, although some cranes continue to catch a few crabs. This is a stressful time of winter for the whooping crane as evidenced by the cranes in uplands.”

We went first to Avenue E, looking for a sight of the reported strays. Finally, as we came to the bay, we saw several large, white shapes. Coming closer, we saw four apparently full grown cranes. They were about ankle deep in water and not more than 10 feet off shore. Leah pulled in behind a truck parked adjacent to the birds. They continued to feed, undisturbed.

We decided that two of them were adults and the other two, nearly adult but offspring. Then we spotted two more birds in the field beyond the road, behind us. Leah drove around so that we got good looks at these birds also, but they were farther away. Barbara took pictures. We agreed we had gotten our crane fix for the year, bid the tall ones good luck, told them to hang in there and come back next year. Then we departed for home.

Leah headed back along the bay, the scenic route. We saw willets in breeding plumage, greater yellowlegs, and some ducks the identity of which was uncertain, maybe mottled ducks. A beautiful white phase reddish egret was cavorting.

We turned in the road where night herons used to nest, by a pond. None were there now. A few yellow-rump warblers went in and out. Kathy pointed out a gray catbird. This is a winter bird not yet departed Back on the main road, we went around Goose Island State Park, crossed the causeway toward Rockport.

The Rockport area is always nostalgic for me. Much of my early birding was done there. Because we were passing anyway, we decided to take a turn around the cemetery, only a block from the waterfront. Although we thought it was probably early for spring flowers, such was not the case. Every inch of ground was covered with lovely yellow.

Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in Texas since 1960.